13 accused of killing or kidnapping for Zetas

Updated 11:48 pm, Wednesday, January 25, 2012

State prosecutors Wednesday indicted 13 people, including one from Pleasanton, accused of involvement in kidnappings and killings for the Zetas drug cartel.

Prosecutors charged six of them with capital murder in a pair of 2010 slayings in Laredo, but said they wouldn't seek the death penalty. If convicted, they'll face life in prison without parole.

Laredo police announced last year that they'd arrested members of the cartel cell they said was headed by Nicolas Reyes Sanchez, 49, who's charged in Wednesday's indictments. A police detective testified in court last year that the Zetas operatives would track targets and hire local prison gang members to be triggermen.

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One of those charged is Rogelio Tijerina, 24, who has lived in both Pleasanton and Laredo and who's serving a 10-year prison sentence from a felony cocaine possession charge in Atascosa County.

“We believe that Rogelio Tijerina is the triggerman,” said Webb County District Attorney Isidro “Chilo” Alaniz. “He would have been working under or with Nicolas Reyes Sanchez.”

Prosecutors indicted seven more people in an attempted kidnapping on September 2010, including Eduardo “Aldo” Treviño Treviño, 50, who Alaniz said is a nephew of the Zetas' second-in-command, Miguel “El 40” Treviño Morales.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago indicted Treviño Treviño last year, alleging that he ran an operation to smuggle drug proceeds into Mexico. He remains a fugitive.

It's unclear why the victims were targeted, Alaniz said.

“Usually it amounts to money or drugs,” he said.

The allegations against Treviño Treviño, Sanchez and the others are remarkably similar to a case that played out in federal court in Laredo this week and last.

In 2006, Laredo police investigating a crew of Zetas hit men were aided by federal agents using electronic surveillance to break up attempted hits and gather evidence about murders.

In this case, a federal wiretap tipped police to the kidnapping attempt, which they foiled, and helped them gather information about the homicides.

“Realistically, we realize in law enforcement that you can shut down one cell and another pops up, Alaniz said. “But we want these people to know there's consequences for this kind of action on this side of the border.”